Police shut two hotels over drug suspicions

Police shut two hotels over drug suspicions

AUTHORITIES have closed two Sihanoukville guesthouses after foreign tourists died from drug overdoses in the establishments earlier this month, local officials said.

In a notice dated Saturday, a copy of which has been obtained by the Post, Preah Sihanouk provincial authorities declared the permanent closure of the Geckozy Guesthouse, in Sihanoukville’s Commune 2, and the temporary shuttering of Santepheap Guesthouse, in Commune 4, pending further police investigation.

A Preah Sihanouk police official, who asked not to be named, said that after raiding Geckozy Guesthouse early this month following the death of a foreign tourist, police had discovered illegal drugs and ordered the owners to close their doors within 15 days.

“We gave the owner 10 days, with May 15 as the deadline, to get ready for the closure,” he said, adding that Santepheap Guesthouse, where a tourist also died recently from an overdose, was still under investigation.

Bou Bunhang, a prosecutor at the Preah Sihanouk provincial court, said that investigations of both establishments were ongoing.

“If we find that owners of the two guesthouses secretly allowed the use of illegal drugs at their guesthouses, they will have to be punished under the law,” he said.

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